Food to Market

Food to Market is a program that contributes to building sustainable food systems in Kenya. By creating new, and accelerating existing social ventures that tackle the root causes of food loss. We will build local, efficient value chains, enabling the needed growth and change towards a sustainable way of working.

Nearly 50% of harvested fruit- and vegetables in Kenya is lost before it reaches the customer. At the same time, many people suffer from malnutrition and shortages of micronutrients. Kenya already is a net importer of many fruit and vegetables and with a third more mouths to feed in 2050 food security should be the no. 1 focus. Smallholder farmers are key to the solution.

Enviu has the ambition to reduce 80% of post harvest loss of fruits & vegetables by 2030

Professionalizing the food chain with local companies

To feed a growing world population – while conserving land and other resources – reducing food loss is crucial. First of all because of the direct impact: more food reaches the market, leading to increased food security. And, perhaps more importantly, because of the indirect impact: it will increase the farmer’s income which will enable him/her to invest in new sustainable and more efficient ways of producing. Reducing post-harvest food loss will be a flywheel to driving sustainable change in the Kenyan food system.

We are convinced that to solve the problems in the food chain it takes embedded, local, commercial companies in the local chains to make for a lasting change. Our mission is to build and scale third party suppliers that radically improve the professionalism and efficiency of domestic fruit and vegetable value chains.

An overview of the food to market value chain in Kenya shows us where the points of attention are.

We are already working on:

SokoFresh: We’re building a cold storage concept that is new to the market. The business enables farmers to preserve their produce by renting cold space. SokoFresh helps farmers and agents to aggregate produce and find good buyers effectively. This results in at least 40% more produce to sell and better prices for the farmer.